PolicyWatch 2038
Featuring Matthew Levitt
To watch video or read this summary on our website, go to:
http://washin.st/12Al3HU
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On February 8, 2013, Matthew Levitt, Daniel Benjamin, and Karen Betts
addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. The following is a
rapporteur's summary of Dr. Levitt's remarks; the other speakers'
observations were published as PolicyWatch 2037
(http://washin.st/Y5sO5X).
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Although the February 2008 assassination of Hezbollah operations chief
Imad Mughniyah spurred an uptick in the group's terrorist operations
against Israeli interests, Iran's decision to aggressively target
Western interests beginning in early 2010 was even more impactful.
Tehran's shadow war with the West led to a string of plots and attacks
against U.S., British, Saudi, and Israeli interests worldwide, conducted
by operatives from Hezbollah and the Qods Force branch of Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (for a recent Institute report on the
reasons behind this shadow war, go to http://washin.st/127Qi17). A
number of these plots unfolded on European soil, yet EU officials
remained hesitant to officially designate Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization. Last week, however, an extensive Bulgarian investigation
concluded that the group was responsible for the July 2012 Burgas bus
bombing.
The new finding marks an important first step toward an EU designation
of Hezbollah, and more evidence of the group's activity in Europe is
still emerging. Just a week before the Burgas attack, authorities in
Cyprus arrested a suspected Hezbollah operative -- this one a European
citizen -- on charges of conducting surveillance for a similar operation
against Israeli tourists boarding airport buses. That trial is due to
conclude in the next couple weeks and will likely reveal a good deal
more information on the group. The investigators have already contended
that the accused was a Hezbollah courier who delivered packages to
operatives around the world before he was sent to Cyprus to conduct
surveillance. At least some of those deliveries were reportedly to
European operatives, including in France and the Netherlands.
Regardless of that case's outcome, the reasons for Europe to designate Hezbollah are well established:
1. Terrorism at home: Hezbollah has firmly reinstated itself in the
business of European terrorism in a manner not witnessed since the
1980s, when it carried out attacks from Copenhagen to Paris. In addition
to the Burgas and Cyprus plots, Hezbollah has conducted surveillance
and planned operations in Greece and other European countries. The
reemergence of such activity is cause for immediate concern among
European law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
2. Criminal activity: Hezbollah is also deeply involved in a wide array
of criminal activities on the continent. Its role in drug trafficking
and money laundering is on the rise, as documented in recent cases
against the Lebanese Canadian Bank, Lebanese drug kingpin Ayman Joumaa,
and others. According to Interpol, authorities have "dismantled
cocaine-trafficking rings that used their proceeds to finance
[Hezbollah] activities...while drugs destined for European markets are
increasingly being channeled through West African countries."
The group also uses Europe as a base for fundraising and weapons
procurement, readily obtaining vast amounts of money through
charity-like methods while using front companies to secure arms for its
militants. In one case, German Lebanese dual national Dani Tarraf
attempted to procure M4 rifles, antiaircraft/antitank missiles, and
other weapons for Hezbollah, with the intention of shipping them to
Latakia, Syria, via his company in Slovakia. He was very clear about why
he wanted guided and shoulder-fired missiles: to "take down an F-16."
According to the FBI, Tarraf's company, Power Express, essentially
"operated as a subsidiary of Hezbollah's technical procurement wing."
In addition, recent U.S. cases have revealed the extent to which
Hezbollah is involved in counterfeiting European and other currencies,
including euros. For example, one Hezbollah operative explained to an
FBI source that the group operates high-quality printing presses
eighteen to twenty hours per day to produce counterfeit U.S. dollars and
Kuwaiti, Saudi, and European money. The operative also bragged that he
belonged to what he called "terrorism Hezbollah," which he said was
active "all over the world." Other operatives have told the FBI that the
group ran a longstanding worldwide robbery campaign to fund terrorist
operations; in one heist, Hezbollah supporters reportedly stole $2
million from a bank in Sweden.
3. Undermining regional security: The EU has immediate interests in
Middle Eastern stability, and few actors are as proactively involved in
undermining regional security as Hezbollah. In August 2012, the U.S.
Treasury Department once again blacklisted the group for providing
"training, advice, and extensive logistical support" to the Syrian
regime's increasingly ruthless efforts against the opposition. A month
later, the department sanctioned Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and
two key leaders, Mustafa Badr al-Din and Talal Hamiyah, for the same
reason. As U.S. officials told the UN Security Council in October, "The
truth is plain to see: Nasrallah's fighters are now part of Assad's
killing machine."
4. Destabilizing Lebanon: Although several European countries are
concerned that designating Hezbollah could spur instability in Lebanon,
the fact is that the group itself has already done more to destabilize
the country than anyone else. In July 2006, Hezbollah drew Israel and
Lebanon into a war neither country wanted. In 2008, it took over parts
of Beirut by force, leading to the deaths of several fellow countrymen.
Its activities in Syria have drawn that sectarian conflict across the
border into Lebanon. And Hezbollah members have been implicated in the
assassinations of Internal Security Forces investigations chief Wissam
al-Hassan and former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, with the latter
resulting in indictments by the UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The fact that Nasrallah is personally directing Hezbollah's activities
in Syria also underscores the need to avoid making false distinctions
between Hezbollah's political and military "wings." Although it may seem
pragmatic for the EU to designate the group's military and terrorist
organs while sparing its political wing, such an approach would severely
limit Europe's ability to prevent operatives from traveling and
fundraising throughout the continent. Selective designation could also
have the unintended consequence of lending the group undeserved
legitimacy. Some European countries have even proposed designating only
specific Hezbollah operatives, but that approach would be even more
ineffectual (for more on the "wings" issue, see "On a Military Wing and a
Prayer," http://washin.st/UbJ5tI).
In short, an EU designation is critical, not only to send Hezbollah a
clear message that it can no longer muddy the waters between politics
and terrorism, but also because it would empower EU member states to
open terrorism-specific investigations into the group's activities --
something many cannot or will not do today despite the resumption of
attacks in Europe. The Bulgarian announcement was just the first shoe to
fall; next comes the Cyprus verdict. The EU must show Hezbollah that
there are consequences for executing terrorist operations, raising
funds, procuring arms, and recruiting operatives on European soil.
Inaction or half-measures would only embolden the group to continue
operating there as if it were business as usual.
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This rapporteur's summary was prepared by Guive Rosen.
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